The Origins of the Cleric in D&D came up again in my wandering. I only wish I had read James Maliszewski's post "Medic!" before writing my own series on this class. I also found Sham's post on the birth of the cleric in OD&D, "Thank You Sir Fang!" and then (using Google's "link:" operator) - I came across Sword & Shields post on a similar aspect of clerics in "Defender's of the Faith". What to know more about clerics in D&D - click those links!

Speaking about Old School - Sham's Grog'N Blog has been busy with a long running series that is looking at the Original Dungeons & Dragons booklets from the mid-1970's; currently he's up to Part 11, "D&D Cover to Cover, Part 11". He's literally going page by page - its engrossing if you are into that sort of thing (I am). I'm just wondering if he's going to do the same sort of thing for 1st Edition AD&D. =P

New Encounter Templates for 4E are over at Critical-Hits.com in a post by Bartoneous titled "D&D 4E: New Encounters". Despite the fact that it sounds like a new Star Trek Movie, there are three new, fully fleshed out encounter templates any 4E DM can drop into their game. Assassination Squad is my favorite.

New Weapons for 4E is always something I'm interested in. Greywulf has made the case that the choice of weapons for Rogues in 4E blows - so, after doing a little research, he presents "Small Swords & Exiles" that includes stats for a historical weapon for rogues. I've also put together a set of new ranged weapons for 4E - an area I found to be lacking.

New 4E Warlock Pact. This was one of the most useful and original posts to have crossed my feed reader this week: "Fleurian Pact Warlock", by Wyatt Salazar over at Turbulent Thoughts was a real gem to read. I'm even planning on using it in my own campaign.

And, as my final last link of the day... I present to you a rant of monumental size and scope. Worthy of nothing short of a circus side-show crazy box - Wyatt has busted my guy again with his hilarious tirades of rage. "What is Immersion? A Miserable Pile of Shlock." is pure gold. Immersion is one aspect of RPGs that I enjoy the most - and honestly, this is great stuff. I just could not stop laughing.

Well, that's all I have time for this morning. Have a great day and stay out of the cold!

10 comments:

It's unfortunate that the edition wars are rumbling on my site. Observations about 4e seem to be taken so personally by some people. :)

It's interesting that new editions of D&D seem to spark these kinds of emotions from their boosters, in a way that game vs. game wars only do occasionally. For most games other than D&D, people are happy to let other people play what and how they want to play, but D&D seems to bring out an adversarial frame of mind in some people.

Sadly, as we've seen in the comments on my site, that frame of mind often leaves intelligent arguments by the wayside in favor of "you're playing wrong" admonitions. Things were going well when Donny was posting, but they quickly devolved (quicker than I expected, because I'm a charitable fellow and my blog's not EN World. ;) ).

Thanks for the link but I, like Propagandroid, wasn't trying to step into the edition wars. I was excited to play 4E, played for the last 4+ months, and formed an opinion based upon what I've experienced.

Luckily, I haven't experienced the unintelligent comments but the "mocking tone" has become more frequent with the last few comments.

@Propagandroid: I worded that wonkily. I meant to say those specific posts. I still look at blogs even when they mar themselves with all this edition jackassery. Hell, I even post in it, though only to say I agree with other people. I'd rather perfectly nice blogs not have to devolve into that. I only do it because my blog was never perfectly nice to begin with.

Also, I was kinda sad my flowerylock didn't make it and was instead beaten out by "WYATT IS ANGRY POST #245" but I realize...it was posted on a Saturday, therefore doesn't count as being this week.

I will get one of my homebrews on your blog roundup yet, Jon! Just you wait! *strokes evil mustache*

@Wyatt - SHYT! I completely forgot to add that link to your new Florian Pact Warlock.. i friggen love that build and had every intention on adding it to this weekly round up... I'm even plannning on using in my own campaign... DONE! I've added to the list. sorry I dumbledored it.

Prop & Tony: I think many of us are tired of seeing such negative comments on a game we quite enjoy wrapped in a tone of definitiveness, which is coming from both sides. It tends to make everyone irritable in the process. It's almost impossible now to have a balanced, critical look at any edition of D&D.

Fortunately, aside from some drive-by commenters leaving nastiness, our audience is largely receptive to our coverage of 4e, and is larger than ever.

Hey, I think the original posts were sensible, polite commentary. And the Edition Wars on blogs are sort of like the U.S. Civil War in the far west--a few minor battles, but nowhere near the bloodshed as back east (in this case, ENWorld).

For me, folks want different things out of games. Even if I'm not playing 4e right now, I didn't walk in on it doing my mom, and I like when folks can talk earnestly and honestly about what they want out of games and how Game X or Y does that.

@Dave: I think its awesome how guys like you and Phil are doing such solid work covering 4e. Really, I think there's a pretty nice mix of coverage right now between other systems, 4e, the old school stuff, and generic stuff. There's blogs out there for every taste.